Adolph stegemaiw



(No Model.)

A. STEGEMANN.

REPETITION ACTION FOR UPRIGHT PIANOS. No. 317,874.

WITNESSES INVEENTOR mi Q W Y ATTORNEY UNTTED STATES PATENT Orrrc a ADOLPH STEGEMANN, OF NEXV YORK, N. Y.

REPETITION ACTION FOR UPRIGHT PIANOS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 317,874, dated May 12, 1885.

Application filed September 20, 1884.

T all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ADOLPH STEGEMANN, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Upright-Piano Action, of which the following specification is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention has for its object to so construct an upright-piano-forte action that the jack or lifter will be always properly kept beneath the hammer-butt when the key is depressed, even if the key had been prcviousl y but partially raised in the playing of tremolos.

The invention consists in the various fea tures of improvement, hereinafter more fully pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of my improved piano-forte action, showing the key in its normal raised position. Fig. 2 is a similar view with the parts in position when the key is depressed. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the back-check and spring; and Fig. 4-, a transverse section on the line 00 m, Fig. 3.

The letter a is the key of an upright pianoforte. b is the hopper; 0, the lever; d, the lifter or jack; 0, the hammer-butt; f, the hammer; g, the back-check, and h the regulatingscrew, against which the lower arm of the jack strikes, and by which the jack is thrown outward after throwing up the hammer-butt, all as customary. In the constructions heretofore generally in use, after the jack struck the butt it was thrown outward away from the contact-surface of the butt, and would not assume its proper position under the butt, as in Fig. 1, until the key was entirely released. To avoid this defect I attach to the check 9 a fine spring-wire, z, coiled around a supporting pin, and then bent first forward and then upward, as shown. This wire first clears the top of check g, and then passes through a groove in the catch j, attached to the hammer-butt. This catch. is of the ordinary construction, excepting that it has the grooved upwardly-extending arm j, as shown. 7; is a stop or rail against which the upper end of spring ibears when the key a is depressed.

(N0 model.)

The operation of the device is as follows: Before the key is depressed, Fig. 1, the spring 2' is thrown back and is entirely out of action. Vhen the keyis depressed, the jack (1 throws the hammer butt forward, and causes the hammer to strike the string. Then as soon as the lower arm of thejack strikes the screw h thejack is thrown slightly backward, and its upper end looses proper contact with the butt. During the upward movement of the jack the check has also been swung upward, carrying the spring z'with it until the end of the spring is pressed against the stop 7;, asin Fig. 2. The spring will therefore not throw the hammer against the string. Now, as the key a. is partially released, the hammer will not be allowed to fall back further than the spring 1' will permit. This spring moving downward with check 9 will crowd forward at its upper end as soon as it is free of stop 7c. Thus the spring t will hold the hammer up until at the next depression of key a the jack (2 will again have assumed its proper position under the bottom of butt 6. In this way the jack will always be properly kept under the butt when the key a is depressed.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination of butt 0, hammer f, and jack d, operating substantially as specified, with spring 2', bearing against the front of a catch on butt 6, and adapted to hold the butt.

up on a partial release of the key, substan tially as specified.

2. The combination, in an upright-pianoforte action, of check 9 with spring '6, and with catch j and stop 7r, substantially as specified.

3. The combination, in an upright-pianoforte action, of jack (2, hammer f, and butt 6 with catch j, having grooved arm j, and with check g, spring i, and stop 7;, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

ADOLPH STEGEMANN.

\Vitnesses:

F. v. BRIESEN, R0131. H. ROY. 

